Checklist for swapping boot drives

Question

I want to change my boot drive to a larger drive already connected to my system. I intend to clone my boot drive to it (using the software that came with Apricorn’s EZ Upgrade kit). I'm wondering what additional steps are required (given that I intend to keep both drives in the system,) including:

--Need to make any changes to my BIOS?

-- Need to pull the source drive right after cloning, before it powers up the next time, so as not to confuse the system with 2 boot drives?

--Need to change any drive jumper settings? (mine are all cable select).

Any other advice on recommended do's & dont's for this procedure would be welcome.

System: XPS Gen 2, WinXP Home, all updates applied

mombodog · Answer

1. Bios, maybe   2, Yes remove the original drive and put the cloned drive in its place using the same data cable the old drive used, now there is no need to change anything in the bios. Leave the old drive disconnected for now   3. Yes cable select on all drives in a Dell. It is the position on the cable that determines master or slave, the end connector on the ide ribbon cable is master, middle connector is slave.   Once it is booting smoothly to the new drive, change the desktop background, shut down, now add the old drive back in to the system if you wish, boot back into windows, this is where the wallpaper change helps determine if you are still booting to the new drive or not, if it is booting to the new drive, look in explorer and see if the old drive is there, if it is delete any files on the root of the drive that are not in folders, this will guarantee you wil not boot to that drive by mistake.   Or, You can delete the partiton on the old drive and format if you wish to use it for extra storage, use disk management to do this.

sudio · Answer

Thanks, mombodog, but I can’t physically hook up (what will be) my cloned drive in the same spot as my original drive because the latter is SATA and the former is IDE.  As I mentioned, the clone-to-be drive is already in my system -- both drives are currently in the master position but are on different channels.  So I’m wondering if it’s possible to leave the clone-to-be drive where it is.  Temporarily removing my old C: drive after the changeover as you describe will be no problem.

mombodog · Answer

'  So I’m wondering if it’s possible to leave the clone-to-be drive where it is'   Yes.   You may have to make a change in the bios boot order, that is all I forsee as a potental problem.     Check and set the new drive as first boot device if necessary.

sudio · Answer

Hmm, new problem. I took a look at my BIOS settings and under Hard Disk Drive Sequence, it’s only listing 2 of the 4 HDs (both SATA, both on the same controller) I have connected to my system. Under Drive Configuration, it shows HDs in the master & slave positions of the Primary Channel and my two DVD drives on the Secondary Channel.

So the 2 non-SATA HDs I have connected to the second controller (which both work fine in my system) don’t show up in SETUP, and it’s one of these I want to make the boot drive. Note: SATA RAID is set to ON, even though I’m not using a RAID setup. I know this is not accurate but have been reluctant to change it because all my HDs have been working properly. Could the fact that I have SATA RAID=ON be preventing the HDs on my second controller from showing up in SETUP? If not, I see no way to tell my system to boot from either of my non-SATA drives. I’ve confirmed I have the most recent BIOS.

Storage, Drives & Media

Checklist for swapping boot drives

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